Dead Powerbook G4

hi there,

1) if you got the dvd with the system on it, insert it in the drive and see if it boots from there. If you haven't got the original dvd get any dvd and listen for any signs of life. The drive should atr least start spinning.

2) Check the battery, press the button, how many led's do you get?

3) put your ear on the case when you press the startup button and listen for HD activity.

Any luck with any of these?

As noted, check the number of LEDs lit on the battery when the little check button on the battery is pushed. If pushing the button produces one flashing LED, then it is unlikely the machine will start. That being said, you might remove the battery and try to power the machine if the battery is discharged, to at least prove that the battery is not holding it off.

PRAM comes into play after the boot tone (chime) so it is not yet in the picture.

You might try a PMU reset, using the information on this Apple knowledge base page.

rj89 wrote:

the problem is none of the lights on the battery go up when i press the button.

If you don't get any lights, then the battery is probably completely gone. You don't specify which model (look at the bottom case for an A### number, like for instance A1025, from which we can get more specific about things) so basically the G4 PowerBook is between five and ten years old. That is to say, if it's a G4 PowerBook, it's old. It is not uncommon for the main batteries to crap out after a few years; I had one die a painful death at five years while I have two that are doing fine after eight years, actually one of them is "good as new" or better.

rj89 wrote:

i tried to start it without the battery just with the charger on but still no signs of life it is not powering up only so there is no question of going to the PMU reset..

You should do the PMU reset if you haven't done so already. It may do no good because if you do not have a good battery or backup battery going in the machine, the PMU may have problems initializing. Nonetheless, do the reset at least once, following the instructions exactly.

rj89 wrote:

.the charger shows the green (amber) light when plugged in despite of that are there any chances that the charger mite be faulty?

There is always that possibility, but the charge indicator is coming from the computer. If the battery is completely gone, there is no charging going on and the computer will cause the indicator to go to green, just as if the battery has been removed from the computer. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to test whether the power adapter is really working properly other than to substitute a known, good adapter.

If your machine has a PRAM backup battery (12-inch models generally didn't) you might try to get some charge into that battery by leaving the computer on the power adapter overnight with the main battery removed. Then, do the PMU reset and try to power the computer with the main battery out and the power adapter connected.

Bottom line, though, is that not getting the single blinking LED even, when the test button is pressed, seems to be the real clue here. See if you can get hold of the correct battery for the machine, preferably one with a full charge, to see how things work with a known good battery.

if you get the amber light, leave the charger plugged in for a few hours, my PW last week had a completely flat battery due to a prolonged sleep and it took a good 1/2 hour to start charging again. My PW does not start until there is enough charge in the battery.

Normally, you won't see a voltage on the protruding tip of the center pin on the conductor plug. That is probably because that tip is actually the connection for the indicator LED. The actual voltage is more likely coming out of the protected shaft of that pin, which is difficult to get to with test leads.

At this point, you need to get a charged battery in place to do any further troubleshooting. Whether that helps is anybody's guess, but that unfortunately is how one troubleshoots hardware things. The task is to eliminate possible causes, starting with the most obvious suspects and moving down the list. One of my favorite ways of describing this process was a sign above a technician's bench: "We do precision guesswork."

Some PowerBooks will start without a battery in place with only the AC adapter, some will not. There is neither rhyme nor reason for which one does and which one does not.

I want to add something here.. If the OP is getting an amber light, that means the battery is charging and problem solved.. If the light is green and yet isn't charging, I would have the OP check his power in system profiler and see if the number of cycles is either normal, or change now.

To my knowledge if system profiler states the battery needs to be replaced, then that could be the solution.. Before he invests in a battery, see if he can find one from a friend to test. If the test battery shows charging and the green lights on the battery light up, then his battery is bad and needs to replace it.